Automatic crossing gate



May 21, 1929. M, KLASKO 1,713,608

AUTOMATIC CROSSING GATE Filed Nov. lO, 1926 Patented Mayv 21, 1929.

MIKE KLASKO, 0F

ICE.. i

SIOUX CITY, IOWA.

AUTOMATIC cnossING earn Application led November My invention relates to automatic crossing gates and it is my purpose to provide a gate which is electrically actuated and controlled by the entrance of the train into a section of track extending on either side of the crossing, the mechanism being such that when the train sets it inoperation, the gate will first be lowered and then in a continuous operation, be held down and for a period of time sufficient to allow the train to reach the crossing and thence in the same continuous operation, raise to clear the roadway, whereby, as quickly as the train has passed, the roadway will be cleared for travels f More specifically, it is my purpose to pro- Vide such a mechanism which maybe set or timed to suit various conditions existing at various crossings, whereby the interference `between the lowering and raising of the gate may be changed. f With these and other objects in view, my invention consists in the construction, arrangement and combination of the various parts of my device, whereby the ob]ects contemplated are attained, as hereinafter more Yfully set forth, pointed out in my claims, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, 1n which: Y

Fig. 1 is a. plan view of the mechanism, the casings thereof being shown in section and portions being illustrated diagrammatically.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken on line2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a sectional View taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a view taken as indicated by the line 4 4 of Fig. 3. 1 f

I have used the reference character to indicate a section of railroad track insulated from the remainder ofthe track and extending a distance on either side of a roadway. The latter has not been illustrated, it being obvious that when the train has entered upon the section 10, a-circuit may be made by the wheels of the track and adapted to operate a control mechanism which will-hereinafter be described.

The gates 11 and 12 are mounted on shafts 13 and 14 geared by means of gear trains 15 and 16 to the operating shaft 17 which is mounted in a casing 18. A pair of bevel gears 19 and 20 are slidingly mounted upon the shaft 17 between collars 21 and 22 and' are connected by a drive gear 23. Control mechanism will later be described for selectively connecting either of the gears 19 or 20 to the 1o, 192e. serial no. 141,508.

shaft 17 in order to impart rotation to the shaft. The drive gear 23 is mounted ony a shaft 24, which in turn is driven from a counter-shaft 25, carrying a pinion 26 meshing with the gear 27 on the shaft 24. The coun'- ter-shaft carries a worm wheel 26 which is driven by a worm 27 carried by the motor 28. T he counter-shaft 25 drives by means of a pinion 29, a gear 30 on the shaft 31, which 1n turn has a pinion 32 driving a pair of gears 33 and 34 loosely mounted on the shaft 17 between collars 35 and 36. Secured to the gears 33 and 34, are the control discs 37 and 38, each of which has on its periphery a plurality of spaced openings 39 adapted to receive one of the pins 40. l i

The gears 19 and 20 carry clutch members 41 and 42 between acting clutch member 43 separated from the members 41 and 42 by springs 44 and actuatedl by the clutch lever 45.

A pair of rods 46 and 47 are pivoted to the end of theA lever 45 and slidably mounted in bearings'48 in the casing 18. The free ends of the levers 46 and 47 are provided with cam faces 49 and 50, respectively, which are positioned to be engaged by the pins 40 in such a manner as to move the rod 46 toward the control discs and to move the rod 47 away from the same.

The motor drives the various parts in the directions indicated by the arrows. Assuming the motor to have been set in operation by the primary control circuit, which will later be described, the control mechanism just described will be hereinafter referred to as the secondary mechanism, and includes the elements 30 to 50, inclusive), the shafts 24 and 31 will be rotated in unison and-will transmit to the gears 19, 20 and 33, 34, respectively, rotation, the rotation of the former being at about one-fifth the speed of the latter. The pins 40 are so positioned (Fig.3) that the one carried by the disc 37 will be in position to move downwardly and immediately engage the cam 50, thereby moving the clutch element 43 into engagement with its eo-acting element 4I androtating the shaft 17 in the direction of rotation of the gear 19.- This will cause the gates to close. In the meanwhile, the pin 40 on the disc 38 will be moving in the opposite direction, being positioned on the same side of its cam member as the other pin so that it moves away from instead of toward the cam member. When the disc 38 has'made a complete revolation, its pin will then engage the which is mounted a cowhereby it will have gay.

cam 49 to move the clutch element 48 into engagement with its co-acting element 42 for raising the gates.

. lt will be seen that the interval between the lowering and the raising ot the gates can/be quickly adjusted by simply changing the relation of the pin carried by the -d-isc 6 8. For instance, by movingvit :further away from its cam when in the start-ing position, the distance that it will have to travel ,to raise the cam will be shortened. IIt it is so c esired, the gates may be set so that they will not begin tov close until after the train has been within the' insulatedsection a period ottime. This maybe accomplished by moving the other pin also away from its cam in the same direction to move a certain distance before throwing in the clutch. j

The cams are ot sutlicient length to just allow the gates to move from one extreme positionto the other. Alfter the pin carried by Vthe discp37 has passed its cam, one ot the springs will move .the clutch element- ;46 to neutral postion, thereby causing thegates to .stop and during the interval that the other pin is approaching the cam, the-gates will remain in a closed position. l

v Thisinterva-l will depend upon the respective times of closing and opening the gate; as has been seen, the latter may be varied at will.y

The primary control mechanism has ior its objectiirst, to start the motor 28, and second, to be so timed that it will disconnect the motor at the point where the discs 37 and 66 have made each a complete revolution. It comprises a pair of discs 51 and 52 loosely mounted on a shaft 53 and carrying gears 54 and 55, both driven from a pinion 56, which in turnis driven from a motor 57 through the medium of a gear tram 56. The gear tram is arranged so as to time the motor57 with the motor 58. A source ot current 59 oit constant strength supplies the motor 28 through the medium of the wires 60 and 61 which -are connected by a switch 62 to form a complete circuit. The discs 51 and'52 are similar to the discs 67' and 3S and carry adjustable pins 63,

, one adapted-to close the switch and the other, to open it v(see Fig. 2). s The closing and opening ot the switch may be timed in the manner f similar to the timing of the closing and opening of the gates and the timing between the motors 57 and 5S may thus be adjusted accurately.. l

T he'motor 57 must in turn be started and stopped by a control circuit and this is so aru ranged that the motor is started by the action ot the train but stoppedv by independent means. The starting motor circuit includes twocircuits in parallel. Each of these circuits includes a source of current64 inter- `posed in thecommon side 65 (including the wires 65 65a and 65") of both parallel circuits. A cutout 66 is also interposed in the Ycomplete the nviaeoe side 65 and is closedV by a magnet 67 operated from the rails 1() and a source of current 68.

It will be seen that the cutout lever 66 forms, together with the magnet 67, a means for the transmission of current to the motor 54 The other sides of the circuit ci the starting motor circuit' are numbered 69 and 7() respectively,( and including the wires 69 and 69a; 70 and 70, respectively), the first includingthe switch 62 vand the second including apair ofcoacting armature levers 71 and 72, The lever 71 is pivotedrwithin the casing` 7 3 which holdsthe cutout 66 yand the lever 72 forms a continuation of the armature 66, being insulated theretrom'as at 74. The lever 66 is urged toward open position against a stop 75 by means of a spring 76 and when in this. position it bringsthe armature 7 2 near enough to the armature 71 so that when the ture 71 and 72 will prevent them from closing even when the coil 7 7V is energized, until the cutout 66 has opened.

In the operation of the device, when the rail circuit is closed by the wheels et a train connecting the rails, acircuit will be established through the electromagnet 67 and battery 68, causing the armature of the cutout 66 to be drawn toward the magnet 67, closing a circuit including the wire 65, wire 7 0a, lever 71, lever 7 2, wire 70, wire `65, motor 57, battery 64, wire 65, and varmature 66. The motor will thence rotate the discs 51 and 52 to first close the switch 62 tok allow current to pass to the motor 28 and simultaneously to Vsecond circuit through i starting motor. This second circuit includes the switch 62, the wire 69a,the wire 65h, the starting motor 57, the battery 64, the wire 65a, the armature 66, the wire 65 and the wire 69. The obj ect of this second circuit is to shut oil *itin Y the motor 57 simultaneouslyv with the opening of the switch 62 and in order to accomplish this, the circuit iirst described including the motor 57 must be broken. This circuit, which may be referred to as the circuit 70, serves the motor 57 only during the closing ot the switch 62 and when the second circuit, including the motor 57, has been established by the closing of the switch 62, the switch 84 will be opened by a pin 85,.carried by the disc 51. The opening ofthe circuit 82 will cause the armature 71 to fly bach against the Stop 81 and when in this position, it cannot be again attracted by the lever 72 until the cutout 66 has been opened, that' is,until the lever 72 has moved close enough to the armallo be stopped at a prerotation of the disc point'being exactly the disc commenced starting motor circuit will be again estabclose for the lished to await the completion ofthe side by the next train. Thus it will be seen that should a train stop Within the range of the rail section 10, either across the road or in another position, that the gate Will simply pre-determined length of time and then again open so as to not unduly obstruct the track. After the train has reached the crossing, it is-no longer necessary that the gate be closed and therefore it is desirable that the gate should not remain closed under any circumstances beyond a predetermined length of time, which may be adjusted to correspond to the ordinary length of time that it will take the average train passing a particular crossing to reach the crossing after it has iirst set the gate mechanism in operation.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of the parts of my invention Without departing from the real spirit and purpose of my invention, and it is my intention to cover by my claims, any modified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents, which may be reasonably included within their scope.

I claim as my invention:

1. A crossing gate comprising gate operating mechanism, an electric motor for driving said mechanism, a secondary control unit for first clutching said mechanism, with the motor in such relation as to drive the mechanism in one direction for closing the gates and to thence clutch the mechanism with the motor in l a way to drive the mechanism in the other direction for opening the gates and a primary control system including an electric starting motor cle-energized in synchronism With the driving motor, and a switch controlled by said starting motor adapted to make and break a circuit including the driving motor.

2. A crossing gate comprising gate operating mechanism, an electric motor for driving said mechanism, a secondary control unit for first clutching said mechanism with the motor in such relation as to drive the mechanism j 1n one direction for closing the ates and to thence clutch the mechanism wit the motor in a Way to drive the mechanism in the other direction for opening the gates and a primary control system including an electric starting motor der-energized in synchronism with the driving motor, a switch adapted to make and break a circuit including the driving motor, rotatable elements geared to the starting motor and adapted to alternately engage the switch for opening and closing the same.

3. A crossing gate comprising gate operating mechanism, an electric motor for driving said mechanism, a secondary control unit for first clutching said mechamsm with the moto in such relation as to drive the mechanism in one direction for closing the ates and to thence clutch the mechanism wit the motor in a Way to drive the mechanism in the other direction for opening the gates and a primary control system including an electric starting motor de-energized in synchronism with the driving motor, a switch adapted to make and break a circuit including the driving motor, rotatable elements geared to the startingk motor and adapted to alternately engage the switch for opening and closing the same, and a starting circuit including the starting motor, a sourceoi:` current and a stoppin switch actuated by one of said rotatable e ements.

4. A crossing gate comprising gate operating mechanism, an electric motor for driving said mechanism, a secondary control unit for first clutching said'mechanism With the mo-` tor in such relation as to drive the mechanism in one direction for closing the gates f and to thence clutch the mechanism with the motor in a Way to drive the mechanism in the other direction for openin the gates and a primary control system inc uding an electric starting motor de-energized in synchronism with the driving motor, a switch adapted to make and break a circuit including the driving motor, rotatable elements eared to the starting motor and adapted to a ternately engage the switch for opening and closing the same, a starting circuit including said starting motor, a source of current and two parallel starting circuit portions, one of said portions including a stopping switch actuated by oneof said rotatable elements and the other portion including a starting switch, and a rail circuit including a pair of rails. a source of current andan electromagnet for actuating the starting switch.

Signed this 14th day of October, 1926, in the county of Woodbury and State of Iowa. 

